As you know, Amanda and Lea will be reading through the first round of entries along with Kamy and Deborah. When we narrow it down to our favorite entries, we’ll open it up to our illustrious judging panel!

First, I'd like to introduce our newest judge, Valerie Boyd, the author of Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurstonand the forthcoming Spirits in the Dark: The Untold Story of Black Women in Hollywood. She is an Associate Professor and the Charlayne Hunter-Gault Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia. Valerie earned a bachelor’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1985 and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Goucher College in 1999. She founded EightRock, a cutting-edge journal of black arts and culture, in 1990. In 1992, she co-founded HealthQuest, the first nationally distributed magazine focusing on African-American health.

And our previously announced judges:

Brooke Warner is a Senior Editor at Seal Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Seal Press was founded in 1976 to provide a forum for women writers and feminist issues. Since then Seal has published groundbreaking books that represent the diverse voices and interests of women—their lives, literature, and concerns. Fueled by the radical thinking and daring work of our authors, Seal's list includes books on women's health, parenting, outdoor adventure and travel, popular culture, gender and women's studies, and current affairs.

Betsy Lerner worked as an editor for 16 years at major trade publishers including Simon & Schuster, Houghton Mifflin and Executive Editor at Doubleday. As a partner with Dunow, Carlson and Lerner Literary Agency, she mostly works with non-fiction writers in the areas of science, psychology, history, cultural studies, biography, current events, memoir and the hard to categorize. Lerner was the recipient of the Tony Godwin Publishing Prize. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and is the author of Food and Loathing: A Life Measured Out in Calories and The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers. Her blog on publishing can be found on www.betsylerner.com.

Erin Hosier has been agenting since 2001. She got her start at The Gernert Company, and moved to Dunow, Carlson & Lerner in 2007. She primarily works with nonfiction authors and has a special interest in popular culture, music, sociology and memoir. She grew up in Ohio, and lives in Brooklyn. She co-hosts the infamous Literary Death Match in NYC and blogs about media for www.shewrites.com. She is also available for consultations through She Writes Services.

Alissa Quart is working on a new book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux about changes in alternative culture. She is a 2009-2010 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. She also writes a column for Columbia Journalism Review, where she is a contributing editor. She is the author of Hothouse Kids: The Dilemma of the Gifted Child, published by Penguin Press in 2006, and Branded: The Buying And Selling Of Teenagers, published by Basic Books in 2003. She's a contributing writer at Mother Jones and has written for The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek and many other places. In addition, she is often an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.


Remember:
The announcement of finalists will take place on August 24th, 2010 on www.shewrites.com
And the announcement of the winner? September 7th, 2010 on www.shewrites.com